Store Owner Sentenced to Prison for Food Stamp Fraud

A U.S. District Judge has sentenced a second Wilkinson County store owner to federal prison for food stamp fraud.

The U.S. Attorney's office confirmed that Judge Marc Treadwell sentenced 59-year-old Alfred Boyd to 5 and a half years in federal prison.

Boyd has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud and will pay $800,000 restitution.

In March ... an investigation concluded Boyd, owner of Northwind Mini Mart and 77-year-old Elbert Shinholster, Sr. of Irwinton, operator of Shinholster's Grocery...were part of the fraudulent operation.

There were four others involved in the case and at the time of the arrests, Wilkinson County Sheriff Richard Chatman said the stores were cashing out the cards for cash.

Chatman says the store owners gave cardholders a seventy/thirty split of the proceeds.

Investigators believe Shinholster committed more than $4.5 million in fraud between 2006 and 2011, and Northwind committed more than $1.5 million dollars in fraud between 2009 and 2011.